Aloha and welcome to Friday. Marge and I are getting ready for a busy weekend. Double workshops for me on Saturday, a recruiting fair and all as we host a house guest for a few days. It reminds me of a line out of one our favorite movies, ‘Return to Me.’ In it Carrol O’Connor (Archie Bunker) utters the line as he is busy getting things done, “I am blessed with work.” I am blessed with work, but not all work is a blessing. It depends on who you’re working for. I’ve spent thousands of hours working for the wrong person and believe me, it was not a blessing. It’s all in the view you hold, but if you are dedicating your work to God, it’s not work at all, it’s a joy. As Twain said long ago, “find something you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life!”
This morning we’re cruising right through 1 Peter and we dock at chapter 3. I love to study God’s Word exactly as it is laid out. It allows me the opportunity to experience the different writers one after the other. I’ve moved from Paul to James and now to Peter in just a few weeks and it’s amazing to see, feel and hear the differences between them. We sometimes forget that the people in the Bible didn’t know that they were living in Bible times. These men and women all came from a hometown, had families and grew up a certain way. Some were educated, some were tradesmen, some were homemakers. They all had a story, a background and some even had country accents like me! (the Galileans) As you take all of this into account you can just feel the difference between the writers. It’s so different to read James versus Peter. It’s so different to read Mark versus Luke. I love that God’s Word is so personal. We are blessed that God uses regular men and women to convey His Word to us.
Let’s start with a question. Do you want a good life? Would you like to be able to look at yourself in the mirror today and say that you really love your life? If we could poll the world, I would have to say that we could get yes's in the near 99th percentile on this question. I mean really, who wouldn’t want a good life that they really love? But the real question is how? How do we secure such a life? It seems fleeting. The world is a dog eat dog place. People are mean to each other, it’s not as fair to some as it is to others, and it seems at times like it’s one step forward and 2 steps back. Are we really moving any closer to a good life? For some, life is mere moments of superficial happy times that are quickly clouded by the darkness of normal life.
I think the problem is that we perceive life as something that happens to us, not that we are something that happens to life. We live in a purely reactionary stance towards the world. Our happiness and our love for our lives depends on our circumstances. To see if you’ve slipped into a circumstantial existence, try this. See how many of your daily sentences start with ‘if.’ If I had a better job then…If I had more money I could…If I just had my masters degree then…If my boss wasn’t such a jerk I could…If my marriage was better we could…You see when the “ifs” penetrate deep into our psyche, something happens. We shift into a reactionary arena where we lose power. We lose control. This is not the way that God wants us to live.
When God sent His only Son to die for us and redeem our sin-stained souls, it wasn’t just to promise us a home in Heaven. In itself, this is enough, in fact it’s the single biggest thing that has ever been done for mankind. But our God, a God of mercy, grace and love offers us more from this life. So much more. This is one of my favorite verses about claiming all of the goodness out of this life that God intends for us to have.
“I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” John 10:10b
You see as we walk this Earth as followers of Christ, God wants us to have more. More than just a dreary walk. More than a simple mundane existence. He wants us to have a full, rich, abundant lives that are full of joy, love, peace and goodness. A life in Christ.
So as always, the million dollar question is…how? You’re asking, “Dan, how do I claim a life that I can love?” “How do I claim good days?” Well, the first thing is you must have Christ as your Savior. With Christ comes the gift of the Holy Spirit and through the Holy Spirit He will move you into maturity with Christ. Through study of God’s Word and prayer time, the Holy Spirit will make the things of God real to you.
Beyond that we have instructions. And this folks, brings us full circle to our study verse for the day. We will see here the specific instructions that will allow us to “love our life today” and be able to fully realize “good days.” Lets take a look:
“Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
What a beautiful promise we start with in these powerful verses. “Whosoever desires to love life and see good days.” Our entire intro revolved around these promises and now we’re going to see how God says we can claim these.
1) keep you tongue from evil. Evil is the absolute absence of God. It is pure darkness. If you are speaking evil towards someone that means that there is NO God in your speech. Folks, that is bad. I hear people speaking this way to each other in public all the time and it crushes my heart. Anytime a follower of Christ is exposed to evil you will know it. For me, it’s almost like my heart skips a beat and it turns my stomach. The Holy Spirit that lives within me cannot stand to see people being evil to each other. We had an intense study of taming the evil of the tongue back in James chapter 3, if you missed it, back up and catch it, it’s so important to your walk in this world. You can go to The5MC.com and find it under the tab of “James.” The power we hold in our speech is the most powerful thing on this planet. With evil speech we can destroy people, relationships, marriages, families, companies and yes, even nations. The first lesson in having good days is to keep yourself from evil talk about others.
2) Do not speak deceit. Deceit is to “intentionally cause someone to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage.” The key word here is intentionally. It is your goal. This is back to the power of the tongue, notice it says to not “speak” deceit. It all starts with the malice of the heart and then flows from the mouth and then to the hands. If you want to see good days, you cannot ruin someone elses…it will come back and steal your joy…guaranteed.
3) Turn away from evil and do good. Folks, this is the lesson of life in 7 words. Turn away is the same root word as repent, to turn away from. If your going east, turn and go west. If evil is North, you’re heading south. To turn away is to do the absolute opposite. This is such a simple commandment, yet it holds the power to fulfill the promise of good days. It holds the promise of creating a life you can love. Do you know the great thing about doing good? The more good you do, the more good will come find you. God will see to it. Go do some good for others this week and try it. But be careful to recall the verse carefully. It’s not just doing good, its turning from all evil first. You cannot do both. That is a heart conflict and it will not produce good days. Check out James 3:11-12 “Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” If you have a heart that chases after Jesus you will not harbor evil towards others, only good. Do good for others and God promises us good days indeed.
4) Seek peace and pursue it. Seek is to “search diligently for something.” Pursue is to “follow someone or something in order to catch or obtain it” These are both verbs. Action words. Are you starting to get the image from God about how we are to react to peace in our lives? We are to search for it and run after it. It is essential to our good days, we must obtain it at all costs. Peace is the presence of God. Peace is stillness, calmness and goodness. You can love your life today if it is bathed in peace that you have sought after and pursued.
5) For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. Righteous is big church word but it simply means ‘to do right before God.’ It’s to doing things God’s way. To be righteous today would be to adhere to the commands we have already been discussing today. Speak no evil of others, don’t be deceitful, turn away from evil, do good, seek peace. These are all righteous before the Lord. If you obey the Lord, we’re told here “his eyes will be on you.” This means the God of all creations sees us! And in doing so we’re told His ears are open to our prayers. Folks, this is an amazing promise in the Word of God! Simply amazing! We do not serve a distant God. He is not aloof and far away. He is not unattainable or deaf to our pleas. We serve a personal God. We serve a God that created us, knows us, has His eyes upon us and hears our prayers. I don’t even know what to say about this promise from God….wow.
6) But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Friends, if there is any place you don’t want to be, it’s here. If you are in a practice of serving yourself and that involves treating people in evil ways to get what you want, we’re clearly told here that God will turn His face against you. This is basically God turning His back on you. His eyes will not be upon you and His ears will not be open to your prayers. This is the lost of this world. The purest form of evil is rejection of Jesus Christ. Jesus can cover every sin that man can commit…except one. Rejection of the Gospel. I cannot imagine living a life without God. I cannot imagine a life where God has turned His back on me because of my rebellion towards Him and my unbelief in His Son Jesus Christ. He will not look at me and He will not listen to me. It is a completely severed relationship. For those that do evil, life will never be one they can love or one that is full of good days.
If today your life is void of Jesus and you have rejected Him, you can turn away from evil and do good. We serve a God of mercy and grace and He will accept anyone that calls upon His name. It’s simple and its free, it’s a gift. The single biggest gift that mankind has every encountered. But to accept this gift you have to reach out and take it. If it’s forced on you, it’s not a gift at all. Jesus is at the door of your heart knocking, but you must answer the door. He will not kick it in. If today you desire what you have seen others have in their lives, good days and a life they love, you can have this too. It’s a by product of asking Jesus into your heart. Simply say this:
“God, I am a sinner and on my own I have made a mess of my life. I have sinned against You and this imperfect life can never stand before a perfect God in Heaven. I need help. I need you. I need your Son. What you did through your Son on the Cross covers my sin. Jesus is my hope and He can save me. Jesus come into my heart and save this life. I give my life to you. Not only do I want a home in Heaven but I want a life I can love. I want a life full of good days. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
If you prayed this prayer today, I am so excited for you! It all changes today, you are now a child of God and you are blessed with the Holy Spirit. You now have a helper that will guide you and mold you into the image of Jesus Christ. To start this journey, practice what we have learned in our lesson today. Speak no evil of others. Do not be deceitful but honest. Seek peace at all costs. Turn from evil and do good to all. If you’re looking for a life you can love. A life that has many good days, God has told us how in these verses. Now as Nike says….Just Do It.
God bless you.
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